FROM CUBA TO SPARTA TO CAPE MAY

June 13, 2012: My family is scattered all over, and I feel a little like an air traffic controller keeping tabs on them. I am a sentinel keeping vigil for news of family removed from home base.

My husband Jim is in Cuba.

My number three son Tom has been on a 238-mile solo bike trip through New Jersey, a self-assigned challenge that his father feels is excessively and pointlessly risky.

My number two son Mike is sequestered away in Edgewater, as he studies for the New York and New Jersey bar exams.

My number one son Matt and my daughter-in-law Melany are preparing to host a joint 30^th birthday party for 70 people at their home in Sparta, NJ. Yesterday morning they were in crisis, because the caterer they hired cancelled (by e-mail) 4 days before the party. They were both working, so I got on the phone to hire a new caterer, rent the tent and outdoor tables and chairs, and engage a server. Mel’s mom Susan was already handling the cake and the décor.

My son Mike was considering whether we could sue the original caterer.

As I concluded my last call with Matt on the house phone around 7 pm, my cell phone trilled. It was Tom, telling me he had arrived safely in Cape May. Here are my daily posts to family about Tom’s four-day trip.

TOM-SPOTTING DAY ONE: Tom just called at 8:30 pm Saturday night, after having started his bike adventure at High Point State Park in extreme northern New Jersey. He traveled five or six hours and covered 55 miles of his 238-mile projected journey to Cape May. He popped up his one-man tent in a wooded area off Route 206 in Roxbury Township. Today he ate protein bars, candy and soda. He said so far he is not feeling the weight of his big backpack on his shoulders...but tomorrow will tell. He had to walk his bike up steep hills, because the gears on his old bike (Jim's old bike) aren't so responsive. He figures he has only about another 30 miles until the grade turns flat. His 17-year-old sister Maeve told him to beware bears, snakes, perverts and murderers. He says he needs to buy bug spray because the bugs are bad. He said a lot of people talked to him, asking where he's going . (Probably the questioners were pervs and murderers, but hey... it's nice to be sociable.)

TOM-SPOTTING DAY TWO: Sunday 5:30 pm: Tom called from just outside Princeton. He traveled about 50 miles today. He slept for about 5 hours last night on a rocky berth in the woods...He didn't get to sleep until 3 am ( his college schedule) and then was awakened by the light at 8 am. He went to a Subway, changed his clothes and brushed his teeth in a restroom, and had a chicken-and-bacon sub for breakfast. He had two slices of pizza for lunch. He is staying tonight in a Holiday Inn for the shower, the TV, the soft bed and room service. Tomorrow night he hopes to sleep in a campground. His only awkward moment was last night when a guy on a bike stopped and stared at him as he sat near his pitched tent. Tom said, "Hi, how's it going?" And without a word, the guy rode off.

TOM-SPOTTING DAY THREE: Monday 9:30 pm Just heard from Tom. He’s In Egg Harbor City. He travelled 70 miles today and blew a tire. He hopes to be in Cape May within a day... day and a half..

TOM-SPOTTING DAY FOUR:: Tom arrived in Cape May late afternoon/early evening Tuesday. He called me from his friend Tim's grandmother's house, his final destination. He travelled about 80 miles by bike today.

This morning, he was expecting to wait until 11 am when the local bike shop opened, to get his blown tire fixed. He went to a coffee shop around 9:30 to get a donut, and saw a guy sweeping the sidewalk in front of the bike shop. He went over to ask the guy about his problem. The tire was fixed and he was on his way by 9:40.

The rain was tough, and at Mays Landing, he stopped to put plastic shopping bags on his feet. A lady in a deli saw him, and gave him a plastic poncho. His ride was pretty seamless after that.

I'll pick him up tomorrow afternoon in Cape May. I'm glad he had his bike adventure, but I'm glad it's over...

Meanwhile on Tuesday morning, the paterfamilias was heard from via email. Here are Jim’s first impressions of Cuba:

 ‘Well, a day in Cuba. We're going out to dinner in a few minutes. Weather is really hot but great, such a scenic country, but in total ruin. Looks like when I first went to East Germany when I was 20 years old. It was still devastated by the war. In this case, it’s being destroyed by rot and the embargo, the latter of which seems like a total un-war war on people's lives here. There are barely any streetlights on for any of the streets, and barely a bulb lit inside all the decaying buildings. At night, it looks like a zombie movie. Today, we went to the university and a bunch of other places, including a place for lunch under a thatched roof by the sea that was tremendous. Had chicken, black beans and white rice, plust plantains. I grimaced at the black bean goop, but  it had cardamom and a whole bunch of other plain spices I liked and it was great. Everybody was raving about the stupid chicken they gave the table. The waiter said "This is what chicken tastes like without the antibiotics and drugs they put in them back where you live."" When someone said that’s just communist propaganda, and the waiter overheard it, he said "No, we don’t have the money to PAY for the antibiotics." Anyway, I get only 29 minutes on the hotel computer, and there's a line so I think I'll dump off now. I've been to 70-some countries, including Bangladesh, which had the worst poverty, but this actually seems worse because there are all these buildings that are grand (everything in B/desh was a corrugated mess except for the government buildings and the mosques), so the poverty looks more harrowing. In fact, I went across the street from the hotel here in the middle of the city to avoid paying five bucks for a bottle of water at the hotel. I went into the store, and got accosted by beggars, flocks of them! like mosquitoes you have to swat away. But, they're actually nice people, not dangerous. That made it all the worse. And it’s really clear our blockade is starving them. The wheezer commies from a half a century ago are all but forgotten. Yet, we still keep the screws on. I don’t get it.”